The novel chronicles the continued struggles of the Bene Gesserit Sisterhood against the violent Honored Matres, who are succeeding in their bid to seize control of the universe and destroy the factions and planets that oppose them.

The Matres are seeking to assimilate the technology and developed methods of the Bene Gesserit and exterminate the Sisterhood itself.

The Bene Gesserit are also terraforming the planet Chapterhouse to accommodate the all-important sandworms, whose native planet Dune had been destroyed by the Matres.

Awed by her physical prowess, the remaining Honored Matres are forced to accept her as their new leader.

The most powerful of these forces are the Honored Matres, a violent society of women bred and trained for combat and the sexual control of men.

Information about the religious practices surrounding the Matres is limited to the stones on which their depictions and inscriptions are found, of which over 1, 100 exist.

Matres also appear on votive reliefs and inscriptions in other areas occupied by the Roman army, including southeast Gaul, as at Bibracte ( illustration ); in Spain and Portugal, where some twenty inscriptions are known, among them several ones which include local epithets like a dedication to the Matribus Gallaicis " to the Galician Mothers "; and also in the Romano-Celtic culture of Pannonia, in the form of similar reliefs and inscriptions to Nutrices Augustae, " the august Nurses " found in Roman sites of Ptuj, Lower Styria.

The Matres themselves are being hunted by a far more powerful force from out in the Scattering.

Among the Bene Gesserit, some are willing to accept the merge with the Honored Matres, while others oppose allying with their enemies ; a group of dissenters led by Reverend Mother Sheeana had previously fled Chapterhouse aboard a no-ship upon Murbella's ascension to leadership.

As the Honored Matres conquer the Old Empire, the Ixians are reduced to a barely tolerated technological combine.

The Honored Matres are a fictional matriarchal organization in Frank Herbert's science fiction Dune universe.

The Honored Matres are first introduced in Herbert's Heretics of Dune ( 1984 ) and play a continued role in his final Dune novel, Chapterhouse: Dune ( 1985 ).

Violent and without mercy, the Matres possess military and sexual skills that seem to indicate to some that they are an outgrowth from or a combination of the Fish Speakers and Bene Gesserit who fled out into the Scattering.

The Honored Matres are characterized by their extremely violent tendencies and their ability to imprint a man sexually, amplifying his orgasmic response to such an ecstatic height that the victim of an imprinting becomes " addicted " to his imprinter, thereby becoming a willing slave of the Honored Matre who " marks " him.

Honored Matres are capable of using combinations of language and tone in order to compel listeners into obedience on a subconscious level.

She takes charge of the Honored Matres, who are awed by her physical prowess.

Murbella and the Bene Gesserit stumble upon this when they discover that the leader of the Honored Matres on the planet Tleilax and her inner circle are in fact Face Dancer duplicates.

The Suleviae are identified with the Matres on an inscription from Colchester, as well as on most of the inscriptions from Rome ; they are also identified once with the Junones.

In Chapterhouse: Dune, by Frank Herbert, there is a species called Futar ; they are a genetically engineered human / feline hybrid trained to kill the Honored Matres.

The Bene Gesserit have accepted Murbella as a novice and are training her to be a Sister, despite their belief that she intends to steal their secrets and escape back to the Honored Matres.

Murbella shares with Odrade and takes charge of the Honored Matres, who are awed by her physical prowess.

Her ' Valkyries ' attack the rebel Honored Matre strongholds on other planets with success, in the process discovering that some of the Honored Matres are Face Dancers in disguise, undetectable until death.

The town had a strong Celtic identity, shown by the names of the residents ( Vrittakos, Eporix, Litumaros ) by the names of the local gods ( Glanis and his companions, the Glanicae, ( similar to the Roman Matres ); and the goddesses Rosmerta and Epona ); by the statues and pottery ; by the customs, such as displaying the severed heads of enemies at the city gate ; and by the cooking utensils found in the ruins, which showed that the people of Glanis boiled their food in pots, rather than frying it in pans like other Mediterranean tribes.

On Tleilax, Uxtal has been forced ( by threat of death ) to use Tleilaxu axlotl tank technology to produce the adrenaline-enhancing drug used by Honored Matres.

The Tleilaxu women had been used as axlotl tanks by their males for millennia ; though the current Honored Matres did not know their own origins, this explains to Murbella why they had been compelled to so mercilessly annihilate the Tleilaxu worlds in the Old Empire.

According to various excerpts, Futars can find and destroy Honored Matres, and are rumored to have been created and used by the " Ones of Many Faces " in their devastating attack against the Honored Matres in The Scattering.

The Honored Matres have also destroyed the entire Bene Tleilax civilization, with Tleilaxu Master Scytale the only one of his kind left alive.

Teg also goes to a supposed safe house, only to discover the Honored Matres.

Now they must survive the Honored Matres, whose reckless conquest of the Old Empire threatens Bene Gesserit survival.

The situation is desperate for the Bene Gesserit as they find themselves the targets of the Honored Matres, whose conquest of the Old Empire is almost complete.

Now in command of the Bene Gesserit, Mother Superior Darwi Odrade continues to develop her drastic, secret plan to overcome the Honored Matres.

The Bene Gesserit have two other prisoners on Chapterhouse: the latest Duncan Idaho ghola, and former Honored Matre Murbella, whom they have accepted as a novice despite their suspicion that she intends to escape back to the Honored Matres.

Lampadas, a center for Bene Gesserit education, has been destroyed by the Honored Matres.

The Rabbi gives Lucilla sanctuary, but to save his organization he must deliver her to the Matres.

Lucilla is then " betrayed ", and taken before the Great Honored Matre Dama, who tries to persuade her to join the Honored Matres, preserving her life in exchange for Bene Gesserit secrets.

Odrade appoints him again as Bashar of the military forces of the Sisterhood for the assault on the Honored Matres.

Odrade next calls a meeting of all the Bene Gesserit, announcing her plan to attack the Honored Matres.

Logno — chief advisor to Dama — assassinates Dama with poison and assumes control of the Honored Matres.

Too late Odrade and Teg realize they have fallen into a trap, and the Honored Matres use a mysterious weapon to turn defeat into victory, as well as capturing Odrade.

The story ends on a cliffhanger with several questions left unanswered regarding the merging of the Honored Matres and Bene Gesserit, the fates of those on the escaped no-ship ( including the role of Scytale, the development of Idaho and Teg, and the role of the Jews ), the identity of the god-like characters in the book's final chapter and the ultimate mystery of what chased the Honored Matres back into the Old Empire.

Above the planet Gammu, Taraza is captured and held hostage by the Honored Matres aboard an Ixian no-ship.

The Honored Matres insist Taraza invite Teg to the ship, hoping to gain control of the ghola project.

Teg manages to turn the tables on the Matres, and rescues the Mother Superior and her party.

Taraza arranges a meeting with the Tleilaxu Master Waff, who is soon forced to tell her what he knows about the Honored Matres.

Lucilla arrives at a Bene Gesserit safe house to discover it has been taken over by Honored Matres, who have Idaho as their captive.

The Honored Matres attack Rakis, killing Taraza.